Resent articles by the "Commonweal" from The Free Libraryhttp://www.thefreelibrary.comen-usFarlex, Inc.Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:23:20 GMT360http://www.thefreelibrary.comhttp://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/static/TFLbyFarlex.gif17565Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Riding+with+Abdul.-a0203141029
Heat waves rise from the sunburnt landscape as I rest in the shade of a stone column. I am in the Syrian country-side, walking in the ruins of the Roman city of Apamea. It's mid-June, and the temperature has topped 100 degrees.

My stomach is in a raging boil, the result of something I ate last night. Reaching the end of the colonnade, I look for my driver, Abdul, a short,...]]>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Nicole+Benevenia.-a0203141028
When I was younger, I always had grand ambitions to read serious literature during the summer. These generally fizzled out by the Fourth of July. The summer I was seventeen, I meant to dive headlong into Anna Karenina but instead ended up wading through a pile of women's magazines and bad young-adult fiction. Older and wiser, 1 now know to select books that will feed my literary...]]>